Year 1: The Mission of God and Flourishing (14 units)

Fall 2026 (MB769): Sep-Dec, 2026 (Online)
Winter 2027 (MI770): Jan-Mar, 2027; Hybrid: Online and In-Person Pasadena, CA, Feb. 24-27, 2027
Spring 2027 (MI771): Mar-Jun, 2027 (Online)

Students will learn practical theology methods, which will serve as an enduring framework for their entire program so that they might listen deeply to the needs of their context, understand what is going on, discern what ought to be going on, and eventually produce a strategy for the way forward. We will dive deep into both the listening task of practical theology by putting our contexts alongside the stories of Jesus in order to set a biblical and theological foundation for God’s redemptive arc of work alive in the world today. Finally, by the end of year one, students will develop a research question that will guide their studies and the development of their final doctoral project.

Year 2: Prophetic and Redemptive Imagination (14 units)

Fall 2027 (MB774): Sep-Dec, 2027 (Online)
Winter 2028 (MB773): Jan-Mar, 2028; Hybrid: Online and In-Person Pasadena, CA, Feb. 23-26 ,2028
Spring 2028 (MB775): Mar-Jun, 2028 (Online)

Students will build on topics covered in the first year as they prepare to do their own original data collection in their context—learning to ask deep questions about what God is up to in their context. To do so, we will draw on biblical and theological sources that help illuminate these concepts in today’s marketplace. By the end of year two, students will be actively engaged in their dissertation work through both data collection and increasingly individualized reading lists and have engaged in biblical and theological frameworks that support renewed imagination in their context.

Year 3: Contextual Analysis and Inner Life of a Leader (14 units)

Fall 2028 (MB774): Sep-Dec, 2028 (Online)
Winter 2029 (MB773): Jan-Mar, 2029; Hybrid: Online and In-Person Pasadena, CA, Feb. 21-24, 2029
Spring 2029 (MB775): Mar-Jun, 2029 (Online)

Whether students are seeking to energize their people to overtly join God’s mission of redemption or engage in work that aligns with it, this work is hard. Given that, a critical component of leadership is tending to our own souls. In this year, and with all the learnings from years one and two in tow, students will engage a variety of resources that seek to engage their own spiritual, psychological, and emotional capacities, all the while continuing to press forward in their individual data collection and dissertation projects. In addition, this year will feature opportunities for online peer-to-peer and professor-student coaching conversations, working through students’ doctoral projects.

Year 4+: Dissertation (12 units)

Fall 2029 (MI772): Sep-Dec, 2029 (Online)
Winter 2030 (ML790A): Jan-Mar, 2030 (Online)
Spring 2030 (ML790B): Mar-June, 2030 (Online)

At this stage, and guided by the frameworks from years one through three, students have experimented with leading for redemptive imagination in their specific work context. Now, in year four, the work done so far culminates in a contextually focused project including a research-based dissertation that helps students articulate and disseminate findings related to their change/innovation project.